Sunday, October 28, 2012

Just a few days ago, we arrived home in Blantyre after an amazing 3-week training in
Ethiopia with Sports Friends. It was an intensive International
Leadership Training with leaders from Zambia, Malawi, Ghana, Senegal, USA,
England, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Thailand, Peru, India, and Kenya.The training was a wonderful time of
fellowship, fun, and learning with these brothers and sisters from around the
world.

Fostance came with us!

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Fostance came with us and had no trouble getting into Ethiopia! Praise God for that! On September 29 when we arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.It was a joyous night of praising Jesus with
our fellow Sports Friends national leaders from all around the world as they
came in that night.

Southern Ethiopian village

After a day in the city, we packed our bags again and jammed
into a few minibuses and headed south 4 hours to Camp Langano for our
International Leadership Training seminar.We arrived to huge monkeys and baboons swinging in the trees. Camp Langano is
a Sports Friends & SIM camp that God is using in awesome ways to bring many people to Himself.It is an amazing place
where the love of Christ reigns.

Baboons kept us awake some nights

Another praise point is that Becca’s mom Chris Reed was able
to join us on this trip so Becca could be freed up to attend this training with
Fostance and I (Luke).Lyzee LOVES her
Nana and they had a grand time painting faces, playing with the kids from the
village, and just running around in God’s beautiful creation.Thanks so much Nana!

Lyzee with her buddy Moses

Nana came to watch Lyzee!

The training began on Monday October 1 and ended on Friday
October 19th.Through this training we have been equipped
with the knowledge and wisdom from leaders who are effectively doing sports
ministry throughout Africa and the world.For the
first time, churches are seeing that they need to reach out to their youth in
relevant ways with the Gospel and disciple the next generation into biblical
maturity.The first week was spent
learning from each other in open discussion about what is going on in each of
our countries.We discussed and prayed
over the struggles that we are facing, encouragements God has given and much
more.Then we learned about how we can
strategically and effectively cast this impacting vision of church-based sports
ministry within the churches in Malawi.

Sunday School in the village

All
3 Sundays we were in Ethiopia, we had the privilege of worshipping with the
vibrant Ethiopian churches.Churches
that have been planted in an all Muslim village through the Sports Friends
work.It was a beautiful picture of the
impact of this ministry.

The second and third weeks of our time in Ethiopia was full of learning from the past and planning
for the future, how to most effectively follow-up and disciple those we’ve
already trained, and then learning how to run Sports Friends in Malawi for the
glory of Christ.We will never forget
these weeks.

Beautiful Camp Langano

All this to say, we are convinced, more than ever, that this
is the ministry God has called us to.Please pray for us as we have many key meetings with mission and church
leaders in the next few months to try to make big strides with God moving
forward for His fame in Malawi.We
cannot do this without you on your knees.Jesus delights in the prayers of His people, who He’s bought with His
blood.Will you please pray that He’ll
call out more leaders from the church in Malawi who are passionate about Christ
and sports ministry?We are so dependent
on God and nothing can happen apart from Him choosing to step into Malawi and
shake it like never before.Pray that He
will shake weary souls out of their slumber and into a spiritual awakening and
revival that will have no end.Christ is
our fountain. Pray that we’ll be able to put all that we’ve learned into
practice in this culture but not get caught up in the hustle and bustle of
leading this ministry that we forget where our strength comes from.In John 7:37-38 Jesus says, “If anyone is
thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me as the Scripture
has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”May we all continue to seek His face more
than the day before and be filled with His streams of Living Water!